


Reunion

by cognomen



Series: Cognomen's List of Things that Aren't Reptiles [15]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Multi, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), mention of other characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-31 00:24:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13963308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cognomen/pseuds/cognomen
Summary: February Ficlet Challenge Day 15. Pairing: Bruce/Tony, Prompt: Character A has been away for a year.When they say goodbye it’s not like either of them means it as a lengthy thing. Bruce makes it back to earth with a gap in his memory and a ship full of Asgardian refugees.





	Reunion

When they say goodbye it’s not like either of them means it as a lengthy thing. Bruce makes it back to earth with a gap in his memory and a ship full of Asgardian refugees.

They’ve both had enough failures in their life in the interim that it leaves Bruce on uncertain footing. He walks into Stark tower with an old failsafe password and finds it’s full of menial office space. An accounting firm.

Stark has moved his operation upstate, taken his little assembled family with him. Bruce stumbles in to find Jarvis no longer sounds like he remembers, lilting a welcome at him in a soft female voice.

Thor has taken his people to Jane Foster’s place. Bruce agreed to come tell tony. He doesn’t have very much idea what or how to convey it all—and, well, it’s been a while.

He almost loses it when he sees the Scarlet Witch on the couch in Tony’s living room watching an old Boris Karloff horror movie with the lovechild of Bruce and Tony’s misguided intellect and some other teenage kid.

“Bruce?” Pepper’s voice cuts in, severs the tired green haze from the rest of his thoughts. She sounds concerned, but not scared, and she takes him by the shoulders without any hesitation and steers him to a quiet place before she hugs him.

It feels strangely grounding. Bruce hasn’t had his feet on the floor since de-hulking. “Hey, Pepper.”

“Bruce,” she says, warmly and softly, her strong palm rubbing over his back. “We’ve missed you.”

“This place is… different,” Bruce says.

“You’ve missed a few things,” Pepper says. “A lot of things. But that’s okay.”

She’s always been good at this. At making Bruce feel present and okay. At making the whole messed up superhero situation seem normal and human.

“I need to see Tony,” Bruce says, remembering why he’s here aside from having a touching reunion with his friends.

“Oh,” Pepper says, lightly, brilliantly. “Is it good news or bad news?”

“It’s ‘I wish SHIELD hadn’t secretly been a Hydra organization so they could handle it’ news,” Bruce tells her, honestly.

“Hmm,” she says. “Alright, come with me. He’s in the lab.”

No surprise there.

“I hope you’re staying the night, at least?” Pepper suggests, as she guides them into a lilting elevator.

“Master Bruce identified,” it intones. “Good evening, Doctor Banner, all lab access granted.”

“Even in the new building?” Bruce asks Pepper.

“Everyone but Steve,” she says, apologetically. ”He calls it the _welcome mat_ protocol.”

“What’s Steve get?” Bruce thinks, at first, that Pepper is joking. That she’s going to reveal that Tony’s set up some kind of gag.

“Well, I call it the oubliette protocol,” Pepper says, looking a little uncomfortable. “It’s not important just yet.”

It’s the first real indicator of how much time it’s actually been, and Bruce feels a little bit of worry creep in.

Then the doors breeze open and usher Pepper and Bruce into the organized chaos of Tony’s lab, music blaring over the sound system as he indulges in his usual level of auditory-assault-assisted tinkering.

Pepper presses a button on a remote she’s carrying and the volume reduces by ninety percent. Tony, leaning over a bench with a torch, looks up.

Even with the dark welder’s goggles over his eyes, Bruce sees the moment of recognition. He had no idea what to expect before this, no real handle even on what his own emotions were going to be.

But he finds them to be a perfect echo for Tony’s, as Tony pulls off the welding goggles and gloves and seems to be drawn across the lab by magnetism until he’s standing in front of Bruce.

He plays it cool, but his eyes give him away. “Well. Back from your vision quest? Bring any interesting hallucinogens? I don’t suppose you brought back my ship, too?”

But then he sweeps Bruce into an impulsive hug, pressing his mouth at Bruce’s cheek in a brush of stubble and heat, and Bruce puts his arms around Tony, too, and catches up to the world.


End file.
